Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.119.1

v1.c6.119.1

1 There is not complete agreement in the various law writings either as to the order of rank of the twelve kinds of sons, or as to the two divisions : (1) sons who belong to the family and have also the right to inherit ; (2) sons who only belong to the family, but have not the right to inherit. The category, “ capable of inheriting, but not belonging to the family,” moreover, is found only in the MBh. Here we give only one or two details which are perhaps of special importance for the subject of this book. All the law books put the kshetraja (the son begotten by a proxy) next after the son of the body ; only Yājñavalkya names before him and as fully equal to the aurasa the son of the inheriting daughter (putrikā). While the son of the inheriting daughter according to the general view is the heir of his sonless grandfather, and also of his father, if this latter has no other son, but in return also takes over in both families the duty of the sacrificing to the forefathers, Gautama, xxviii, 32 throws him into the last place but two in the second group. The gūḍhotpanna or he that is begotten in adultery is reckoned by all to group I, the sahoḍha (he that marriage brought in the bride’s body) only in Nārada (xiii, 45), while otherwise he generally takes the second place in category II, in Vasiṣṭha, xvii, 26 and Viṣṇu, xv, 15 the first place, in Yājñav., ii, 131 the last place but one.